Welcome to another part
of our home: the Story Archive. Some people must have far too much time on
their hands to spend it with writing down the stories of our adventures. The
story-teller in this case is one Mara L. Jade, and we have been searching
for her for a while now - her stories might be entertaining, but she knows
alltogether too much about us, and seems to take delight in letting us look
bad. So if you ever hear of her, tell us immediately.

Nevertheless, one of the
stories she has written about us we have chosen to publish here. We want to
show our goodwill, and leave it up to you if you want to believe her lies
or not.

Maybe - just maybe - we
might strike a deal with her one day. She might be interested - against a
heavy fee, of course - to publish her work here, so at least we could keep
an eye on her that way. So watch out for new stories to come in the future.

Double
trouble

There was a tiny squeak,
followed by a muffled howl. The cargo bay stood empty of its usual clutter,
just a few folded crates stacked up in a corner. On the row of seats opposite
the engineering console two sleeping forms were huddled together under a blanket.
On the table before them, a game of "Holobeasties" was still in progress,
unattended. A brown and swarthy miniature rancor had just stomped down onto
a greyish shaggy bantha, which had expired with all the dramatic sound-effects
that "Holobeasties 7.9" had promised.
Chewbacca stuck his head around the doorframe and eyed the scene before him.
He had been playing against those dreadful girls earlier on, and had taken
great care to make himself understood when he told them that they should turn
the damn thing off before going to sleep. And all for nothing. Han wouldn't
be happy about it, when he'd want to use the tactical display option of the
table tomorrow and find all his power low on it. Damn women!
He walked across to switch it off. As he leaned over the table to reach the
switch at the other side, he noticed something peculiar about the way the
two women were lying there: they didn't make a move. Not a single movement
, not one rise or fall of the breast as they breathed, nothing. He should
have been able to see something like that, shouldn't he? Or was this some
kind of genetic mutilation of their species? Chewbacca knew they were humans
from the planet of Kiffex, in the Southern Sector, but that didn't really
mean much - humans seemed altogether strange sometimes. Some could do feats
others could not, like being able to feel the "Life-force", as Wookiees called
it.
Still, this was suspicious. Those women had a dangerous air about them, and
anything out of the ordinary should be treated with care. Should he check
on them? He decided that it was better to be safe than sorry. He put his hand
on one of the women's shoulders, and shook it. The air-inflated life-size
doll slumped down from the seat, and came to rest at his feet. Chewie shoved
away the rest of the blankets covering the other form, and discovered another
doll under it. "Rrrrraawrr!" he cursed in his own language, and then went
to search for the missing women. This was no good news.

Something was moving around
in the ship. Or rather, someone. It isn't Chewie, Han thought, so it must
be one of those damned twins. Chewie wouldn't make any noise - he knew the
way to open the secret smuggler's compartment in the ship's corridor without
making any of this din. Han cursed himself for ever taking in those two women
as passengers. He had been warned about them before - many times, in fact
- and he sure wasn't keeping any of his more valuable possessions lying around
too loosely, but it seemed nothing could stop those two.
He wondered how they had known about the compartments and where to find them.
They must have pulled a number on Shug Ninx on Nar Shadda - Shug was the only
one who knew about those compartments. Ah well, he really couldn't blame Shug
for falling for them - they certainly had their charms. Certainly, he hadn't
minded being the centre of their attention during this trip, and the occasional
glimpse of a bit more naked flesh wasn't unwelcome - he wasn't going to deny
that. But they had another thing coming if they thought their little games
would work on him.
And they were mad to think that they wouldn't get caught at what they were
doing right now. Still, he had to admire them - to have gotten past the watchful
eye of Chewbacca they must have used some real good ploy. He would see.

They were young, they
were beautiful, they were skilled at their work, and they were extremely dangerous.
They had a reputation for being extremely clever and cunning con-artists who
would scam anyone who got in their way. And although that reputation went
ahead of them wherever they went to, they never got caught.
Because no one knew that there were two of them. Senni and Brea were identical
twins, but that fact was very little known. The reputation they had was the
one of their combined character, Bresenni; slipping in and out of that one
character they had won the hearts and wallets of many people who fell for
that beautiful creature - who never once suspected that while the one was
being wooed, the other was robbing the safe. Only a few people in the galaxy
knew that they were twins - present company included.
They would have preferred to hide that fact from Solo, but that hadn't been
possible. The ship was far too small to carry on their single-identity game,
and anyway, they had to leave Nar Shadda in an awful hurry. That damned Moff
Argon had sent his spies out after them, and they had been forced to abandon
their carefully planned scheme to con some renegade Imperial General out of
his carefully hidden credits. It would have been a really lucrative haul,
and they would have been able to live on that money for a year at least.
Instead they had to abandon their own ship, the Sorry Sight, at the
spaceport, where something that looked suspiciously like a whole batallion
of stormtroopers in civilian clothing had waiting to ambush them. The whole
thing would have been funny if they wouldn't have been in such a tight situation
- why did those Imperials never realize that if they sent out their troops
undercover, they should at least take care to arm them with something else
than those Imperial standard army blasters that gave them away immediately?
So they had remembered Shug Ninx and his tall tales about that Solo character,
and hoped that the guy was on-planet right then. Solo was the favorite pilot
of the Desilijic Hutt Clan, and usually ferrying spice around the galaxy for
them - but from what they had heard from Shug, he wasn't opposed to the occasional
passenger side-trip. Especially not, if it was for a lot of credits. That's
what they had promised him. And that's what he would get.
Of course, not in any way that he would appreciate - he certainly wouldn't
like being paid with money out of his own pocket, but with any luck he wouldn't
realize that until later.
Anyway, he didn't seem to be the cautious type of person, which was a bit
surprising considering that any creature in any sort of employment with the
Hutts had to be quite cunning and devious, and certainly very cautious. But
the only thing that was watchful around the ship was that blasted Wookiee
companion of his, who had been lurking around them ever since they came on
board. But by the silence they perceived around the ship, even the Wookiee
had fallen for the simplest of all tricks and gone to rest.
Time to concentrate on the task at hand: opening that compartment. Shug had
been quite talkative about it, in an effort to ingratiate himself even more
with them, boasting of all the wonderful things he had done to the Falcon.
And they really were grateful now.

Senni was about to squeeze
the flat end of the multi-tool she was holding between the narrow slit in
the plating, when Brea poked her into the side. She looked up at her twin
with a quizzical eye. Brea only held her finger to her mouth, indicating to
stop any noise for a moment, and Senni paused in mid-movement, holding in
her breath.
But there was not a sound to be heard. She shook her head, annoyed, and returned
her attention once more to the plating. While Shug had told them of the compartment
itself, he hadn't been very exact as to where it was located, and this spot
was the fourth or fifth one they had tried out so far.But this one was the
right spot, and she wasn't going to be driven off by some insignificant thing.
Her twin just shrugged, but wondered if the tiny squishing noise she had heard
was simply the hum of the ship's engines, or if there was something else.
Somewhere in the corridor to her left there was a noise again, as if a space-rat
was scurrying along the walls of the ship, and this time even Senni heard
it. She wrote it off as exactly that, and shook her head at her sister. But
when she returned to her work, she was even more careful to make as little
noise as possible. Brea looked around nervously.
Finally, the rift between the plating widened, and she was able to grab it
and pull one sheet of it up. The twins looked at each other, and grinned.
This one was going to be worth it. Together, they removed the trap door and
looked down onto their treasure.

"Good morning, Ladies!
I hope you had pleasant dreams?" Han asked, with all the seriousness he could
muster. Chewie, who followed him into the cargo bay, wasn't quite so successful
at remaining straight-faced - but then, who would see the difference between
a grinning Wookiee and an angry one if they didn't know Wookiees that well?
The twins on the bench behind the hologames table didn't blink an eye. They
looked tired and exhausted, and had been roused from their dreams, however
pleasant, far too early. Nervously they stared at the grumbling Wookie with
the angry expression, and wondered if he had any suspicions.
Yawning and stretching her arms, Senni replied. "Sure, pleasant dreams - very
pleasant dreams!" She grinned happily, thinking of the amount of glitterstim
vials they had taken from that compartment last night, and along with a whole
cache of credits, had lugged all around the ship's corridors and then packed
it away with the rest of their own belongings. It had been hard work, risky
and hard, but the result was well worth it - they would be able to sell off
that spice to their contact on Oseon for a high price, and live like royalty
in the luxurious hotels there for a while, whilst checking out their next
"prey".
Now they only had to get there , without Solo finding out about the stolen
credits and spice. But that should be comparatively easy: they would just
parade around before Solo's eyes a couple of times wearing only the skimpiest
clothes and smiling winningly, and he would melt like butter in their hands.
Easy.
"Would you like some help with your work now, or will you manage on your own?"
Solo asked.
"Ah…what?" Senni asked, confused. What work was he talking of?
"We thought we would make your journey a bit more interesting for you. How
would you like to earn some of that money you're paying me back? 'Figured
you wouldn't want to pay all that much."
Senni looked at her sister. Brea shrugged. Why not? That way they would actually
keep some of the credits they had stolen, and that was even better. And there
was nothing to say against doing a little work. "Sure."
And Senni asked, "What sort of work is it?"
Han Solo smirked. "Oh, there are a couple of crates full of valuables over
there in the corner among your things, and we thought we'd tidy up a bit and
put them safely away to ……… something wrong?"
Senni had paled perceptibly, and gasped as he mentioned the crates. Brea just
sighed. "How in space did you know? And what are you going to do with us now?"
Chewie uttered a loud laugh that started the twins trembling with fright.
Han grinned even wider. "I should report you to the Desilijic Clan, really,
and they'd feed you to some beast or other as punishment for stealing what
is theirs, but I think I have a better idea. I might have some use for your
talents to play a little game with a friend of mine, Lando Calrissian." Chewie
grinned. "And as for how I knew: I laid a little trap for you. While you were
busy carrying off all that spice, the color-crawlers I had hidden in the compartment
went to work on you, and now all I have to do is look at you to see the evidence."
He laughed.
Brea looked at Senni. Senni looked at Brea. The color-crawlers that had gone
to work in their hair had coloured it bright green. And they had never noticed
before. What fools!